Students, schools worry about admissions as SSC results get delayed

From students to parents to junior colleges, the lack of clarity on when the result is going to be announced is making them all anxious; principals say completing portions on time will be difficult as admissions will get delayed

The lack of clarity on when the SSC result will be declared is not only giving students sleepless nights, it has left colleges and parents worried too.

Students have had to wait a long time to find out their results this year

While students are anxious for the suspense to end so they can know how they have fared, parents are worried about getting their wards admitted in good junior colleges in what promises to be a rushed admission process.

Students fear that delayed result announcement will lead to a chaotic admission process. Representational pic

The colleges themselves are saddled with twin worries — completing the admission process after the results are announced and then completing the syllabus portion in time for the first-semester exams in October. Colleges say that a delayed announcement of results will push back the commencement of the new academic year for first-year junior college students.

Last year, the state board had declared the SSC results on June 7. “After the SSC results are declared, it takes at least a month to complete the admissions process. In the past few years, we have been getting just about two months to finish the first-semester portion for our new batch,” said Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrew’s College in Bandra (W).

Fernandes added that while, for the education department, the junior college admission process ends with the three rounds of merit lists, colleges end up filling seats for a couple of weeks after the last merit list is out. “Many students request for seats in offline admissions if they are not happy with the colleges they are allotted in the online process. Teachers are then forced to rush through the portion to prepare children for the first-semester exams in October,” added Fernandes.

The principal of a south Mumbai college echoed this view. “Since there are no holidays in June and July, they are solid teaching months. There are a lot of holidays in August and September. Also, post July, students tend to attend many cultural festivals in different colleges and miss regular class. Teachers, thus, have to struggle to finish the portion on time,” said the principal.

Chaos expectedPanic and anxiety is running high among SSC students and parents as well. While the Maharashtra state board has announced results after June 15 in the past, many parents pointed out that doing so has always led to a chaotic admission process, which they want to avoid.

“Colleges start the admission process for the minority quota seats a day after the SSC results are announced. This gives us less than a day to get our documents in place and get hold of admission forms. Hopefully, the education department will not rush through the admission process this year,” said Shilpa Jaiswal, a student of St Isabel’s High School in Mazgaon, who appeared for her SSC exams this year.

Ticket errorsStudents from both HSC and SSC have had to face problems due to a number of errors that hall tickets were riddled with this year. While some students’ names were spelt wrong, others had the right name but a wrong photograph.

Many students had also complained about mistakes in printing their choice of subjects. The Mumbai divisional state board office in Vashi had to re-print hall tickets for hundreds of students after they flocked there, just a day before the exams were to begin.

While most of these problems were resolved before the exams began, some SSC students found out later that they had the same hall ticket number as some other students.

This meant that many of them could not fill out the first part of the online junior college admissions form, as some other student had already registered with the same hall ticket number.

“Some students had complained that their registration forms were not being accepted on the online junior college admissions website because their hall ticket number was already registered.

We checked and, to ensure that no student loses out on the admission procedure, we have given them new hall ticket numbers. The process took some time,” said Laxmikant Pande, Mumbai divisional board chairman.

‘Fill first part’The office of the deputy director of education, which conducts online junior college admissions, will release the admissions schedule only after the SSC results are announced. As of now, Std X students have been allowed to fill the first part of their two-part admission forms. They will get to fill the second part only after the SSC results are announced.

Voices

Milind Satam, father of an SSC studentLast year, the results were out on June 7 and this year, the board has not even announced the result date so far. While my son is anxiously waiting to know his marks, I’m worried about the admission process. If my son doesn’t get through to a good college, he will be disappointed.

Aakash Kolekar, SSC student, Hansraj Morarji Public School, Andheri (W)My friends and I are very worried about the admission process. If the results are delayed, the admission schedule will become very hectic and we won’t get enough time to apply to the right colleges and for the courses of our choice. All other boards have already announced their Std X results. We are the only ones left.

Marie Fernandes, principal, St Andrew’s CollegeThe admission process, which takes at least a month after the results are declared, gets delayed every year. Because of this, students start the academic year late and teachers have to rush through the portion to prepare them for the first-semester exams in October. Students also don’t get to enjoy their first few days of college life.

The other sideWhen mid-day contacted state board secretary Krishnarao Patil, he said the results have not been delayed. “Last year the results were announced early, on June 7, because the process was over by then. This year, we will announce the results on time and students can apply for admission online. There is no need to worry,” said Patil.

June 7The date when the SSC result was announced last year

17.28 lakhNumber of students who appeared for SSC exams in the state this year